[pct-l] Had an accident, got a trail name

[bighummel at aol.com (bighummel@aol.com)]

Mike, God spead, man . . . God spead!  
 
Greg "Strider" Hummel 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: maurer@earthlink.net
To: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net; BackpackingLight Group <BackpackingLight@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:05:19 -0700
Subject: [pct-l] Had an accident, got a trail name


Hi all, 
 
 
A couple of weeks ago a post mentioned I had been in a motorcycle accident. After 16 days in the hospital I am now home and wanted to drop a quick note to the group. On June 28 my 14 yr. old son and I were on my Honda Goldwing and were hit head on going 50 MPH by a 78 yr. old driver who was driving with a suspended license (for medical reasons). He made an illegal left turn against a red light, right into us. Fortunately he has full insurance. I rammed into the front this mans' Cadillac and fortunately, my son Jackson was throw over the vehicle. Jackson broke his left tibia and suffered about 100 stitches to his left knee. He is recovering quickly and should be on his feet in August. I was not so lucky. My left femur was broken in two places and split up the middle. My left tib/fib were also broken in two places - just above my left ankle and about 2/3 up my leg. This second tib/fib break drove my bones and most of my left calf muscle outside of my lower leg on the left side. I also got a hairline break on C6 on my spine and therefore have been classified with a broken neck. This break is not serious, however, and will heal simply by wearing a collar for 6 weeks. We were airlifted to a San Diego trauma center and through the miracle of medicine the surgeons decided to rebuild my left leg using titanium rods rather than wait for it to heal naturally. I now have a ti rod running down through the entire length of both my femur and my tibia. My leg was enormous for a long time but the swelling is going down quickly and I'm starting to get around on crutches. 
 
Throughout the course of time that has passed I have had a chance to understand how blessed the two of us are that we are still here to hike another day. It will be a long time before I hit the trail again but I am strenuously attacking my physical therapy in an attempt to get back to the person I was on June 27th. I had planned a thru-hike of the PCT through Oregon starting July 5, and have called each of the resupply points and asked them to donate my entire resupply package to the hiker box at each respective location. 
 
I wanted to say thanks to the many folks who passed on get well emails to me directly and through Glen Van Peski, my partner. I also wanted to let you know that as a result of what happened my local hiking buddies are now referring to me as "Peg Leg". What an odd way to acquire a trail name. 
 
Thanks again for your kind thoughts and while I'm not yet on the trail, for now I'm back on the list. 
 
 
 
 
Mike "Peg Leg" Maurer 
 
Gossamer Gear 
 
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